PILOBOLUS: A STORY OF DANCE AND LIFE - Robert Pranzatelli

I first became acquainted with the work of Pilobolus about 1980 when a theatre professor gave me a VHS tape of their performance on a local PBS station. To say that it was life-changing might be overstating it, but within a years time I had created my own 'mime and dance' company which performed locally for three years. I've managed to see them perform live a few times (including in the early 2000's with my 6 year-old, artistic-minded son at West Point where he asked, loud enough for the entire auditorium to hear, "Are they naked?!") and have enjoyed each concert I've been to.

Reading about the group is clearly of interest, but there's always danger in seeing the dirty laundry of artists you admire. Author Robert Pranzatelli has taken a deep dive into the history of the innovative dance group - from the humble beginnings, expansion, international acclaim, internal strife, and individual accomplishments. As a fan, I enjoyed this x-ray view of the group. The stresses and strife among the leaders comes as no surprise. Few successful artists can share joint custody of an art form without some complications.

Much of the early history I'd read before, in magazine articles and the like throughout the years. They did garner a lot of attention over the years, after all.  Still, it's nice to have it bound in one book.  For me, some of the 'newer history' was more fascinating; ie being called upon to be a zombie movement coach for the (then) new The Walking Dead television show, a performance for the Oscars, working with the pop group OK GO.

For those not familiar with Pilobolus, Pranzatelli attempts to boil it down (not an easy task):

What is Pilobolus? I’ve often thought of it as a dance company that never stops reinventing the meaning of the word dance. I love its refusal to settle on a single identity—which makes me think again of Bowie, Capote, Moebius, Blondie, the kind of artists I most value, known for their endless reinvention and eclecticism. (...) But—is reinvention the right word? (...) Pilobolus—its long-ago genesis influenced in part by Merce Cunningham’s original thinking—continues not so much to reinvent itself but to unfold and exercise an inner language, in its case one embodied in a physical movement vocabulary that has now spread throughout and beyond the dance world.

The book is nicely illustrated with photos of the dancers in some of their pieces and in what appear to be promotional photos.

Looking for a good book? I'm not sure how much appeal Pilobolus: A Story of Dance and Life by Robert Pranzatelli will have outside the dance world or to those unfamiliar with the group, but looking at their successes it may be there's a large audience out there looking for a solid history of the company, and this, then would be it.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

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Pilobolus: A Story of Dance and Life

author: Robert Pranzatelli

publisher: University Press of Florida

ISBN: 9780813080499

paperback, 296 pages